Pre-paid account balance notification

ABSTRACT

A method of informing a portable electronic device of a number of available pre-paid text messages, comprising billing a pre-paid subscriber account for a predetermined number of text messages to be sent by a portable electronic device; incrementing a first count by an application executing on a computer based on the predetermined number of text messages purchased; determining by the application a second count indicating a remaining balance of text messages based on how many text messages have been one of received and sent by the portable electronic device since billing the pre-paid subscriber account based on the first count; and sending by the application a message comprising the second count to the portable electronic device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND

Users of portable electronic devices may communicate with one another bya number of different methods. One of the more popular methods is byshort message service (SMS—also known as text messaging). This servicemay be offered by a communication service provider of portableelectronic devices. Service providers may offer one or more of phoneservice, internet service, text messaging service, and/or other portableelectronic device communication services, and may bundle more than oneof these services. The bundle of services may be referred to as aservice plan. The service plan may be provided as a post-pay billingsystem, such that a user is billed for services already provided. Forexample, a user may be billed at the end of a month for the servicesthey have used in that month. Alternatively, services may be pre-paid,such that a user pays for an amount of service, which may be applied asa credit to the user's account. The user may then utilize the serviceuntil the amount of pre-paid service is consumed. Then, if desired, theuser may buy additional service credit in a variety of increments orunits. Text messaging, for example, may be purchased as a number of textmessages to be sent or received by a portable electronic device.Subsequently, each time the user sends or receives a text message, aunit of the user's text credits is consumed, and the number of availabletext messages is decremented accordingly. At any given time, a user maywant to know how many text message credits he/she has remaining in theiraccount, in order to track and/or manage their text messaging budget.The user may contact the service provider by, for example, calling theservice provider's customer service center or such.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, a method of informing a portable electronic device ofa number of available pre-paid text messages is disclosed. The methodcomprises billing a pre-paid subscriber account for a predeterminednumber of text messages to be sent by a portable electronic device,incrementing a first count by an application executing on a computerbased on the predetermined number of text messages purchased,determining by the application a second count indicating a remainingbalance of text messages based on how many text messages have been oneof received and sent by the portable electronic device since billing thepre-paid subscriber account based on the first count, and sending by theapplication a message comprising the second count to the portableelectronic device.

In an embodiment, a method of presenting on a portable electronic devicea number of remaining available pre-paid text messages is disclosed. Themethod comprises receiving by the portable electronic device a textmessage, parsing the text message into a content portion and a countportion, presenting the content portion in a text message display frame,and presenting a number of remaining available pre-paid text messagesbased on the count portion of the text message.

In an embodiment, a method of presenting on a portable electronic devicea number of remaining available pre-paid text messages is disclosed. Themethod comprises receiving by the portable electronic device a messageindicating a number of remaining available pre-paid text messages,receiving a voice call by the portable electronic device, on terminationof the voice call, presenting an audio message indicating the number ofremaining available pre-paid text messages.

These and other features will be more clearly understood from thefollowing detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, referenceis now made to the following brief description, taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings and detailed description, wherein likereference numerals represent like parts.

FIG. 1 illustrates a portable electronic device, according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a communication system, according to an embodiment ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a portable electronic device, according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of software architecture of a portableelectronic device, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computer system, according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It should be understood at the outset that, although illustrativeimplementations of one or more embodiments are illustrated below, thedisclosed systems and methods may be implemented using any number oftechniques, whether currently known or in existence. The disclosureshould in no way be limited to the illustrative implementations,drawings, and techniques illustrated below, but may be modified withinthe scope of the appended claims along with their full scope ofequivalents.

The present disclosure teaches several methods of informing a user of aportable electronic device of her/his pre-paid account balance. Thepre-paid account may include credits for text messaging, voice minutes,and/or units of any other mode of communication with a portableelectronic device. The user may purchase a number of pre-paid units,such as text messages, pre-paid phone minutes, and/or other units foruse on his/her portable electronic device from a communication serviceprovider. As the units are consumed from the account, an account balanceis communicated to the user by the service provider. The account balancemay include a representation of the previous balance, that is to say,the number of units the user had when the account was either started orwhen the user last added to the account, along with the current balance.The balance may be presented in a variety of manners, including visualand audible, and may be presented as units consumed, units remaining, afraction of units remaining or consumed, or other presentation thateffectively conveys to the user the account balance.

Notification may be performed periodically, such as hourly, daily,weekly, or other unit of time. Alternatively, notification may be basedon an increment of usage, such as every five text message credits used,every ten text messages used, every twenty-five text messages used, orother increment of usage of text message credits or other credits in apre-paid account. Notification may be based on the amount of creditunits remaining, for example, when there are twenty-five text messagesleft, ten text messages left, five text messages left, or other unit oftext messages or other pre-paid credits left.

A client on the portable electronic device may perform one or moremethods or processes that communicates with an application executing ona system of the service provider to determine the remaining service ofthe pre-paid account. The client may then present the information aboutthe remaining service to the user of the portable electronic device. Inaddition, the client may be user-configurable in order to allow the userof the portable electronic device to configure the frequency ofnotification, the mode of notification, and/or other parameters ofnotification in order to permit the user to customize the notificationoperating parameters to suit his/her own needs and/or desires.

The automated notification of consumed and/or remaining pre-paid servicemay be a convenience for users and may promote a service providersetting itself apart from its competitors by offering this service.Further, the automated notification of consumed and/or remainingpre-paid service may reduce the costs associated with operating acustomer support center by reducing the number of calls from subscriberswho merely want to know the balance in their pre-paid accounts.

Now turning to FIG. 1, a portable electronic device 100 is illustrated.The portable electronic device 100 includes a speaker or earpiece 102, adisplay 104, a button, set of buttons, or touch-sensitive surface 106for cursor movement or such on the display 104, another touch-sensitivesurface and/or keys 108 for input by a user, and a microphone 110. Theportable electronic device 100 may present options for the user toselect, controls for the user to actuate, and/or cursors or otherindicators for the user to direct. The portable electronic device 100may further accept data entry from the user, including numbers to dialor various parameter values for configuring the operation of thehandset. The portable electronic device 100 may further execute one ormore software or firmware applications in response to user commands.These applications may configure the portable electronic device 100 toperform various customized functions in response to user interaction.Additionally, the portable electronic device 100 may be programmedand/or configured over-the-air, for example from a wireless basestation, a wireless access point, or a peer portable electronic device100. The portable electronic device 100 may present options for the userto select, controls for the user to actuate, and/or cursors or otherindicators for the user to direct. The portable electronic device 100may further accept data entry from the user, including numbers to dialor various parameter values for configuring the operation of thehandset. The portable electronic device 100 may further execute one ormore software or firmware applications in response to user commands.These applications may configure the portable electronic device 100 toperform various customized functions in response to user interaction.Additionally, the portable electronic device 100 may be programmedand/or configured over-the-air, for example from a wireless basestation, a wireless access point, or a peer portable electronic device100. FIG. 1 also depicts a message 112, which will be discussed in moredetail hereinafter.

FIG. 2 shows a wireless communications system 200 including the portableelectronic device 100. FIG. 2 depicts the portable electronic device100, which is operable for implementing aspects of the presentdisclosure, but the present disclosure should not be limited to theseimplementations. In FIG. 2, two portable electronic devices 100 aredepicted in order to illustrate communication from one portableelectronic device to another, wherein each may be the same or similar.For the purposes of this disclosure, whether the hardware and softwareof the two portable electronic devices 100 are identical or not, theirbasic functions may be considered to be the same.

Though illustrated as a mobile phone, the portable electronic device 100may take various forms including a wireless handset, a pager, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a gaming device, an inventory control device, amedia player, a portable computer, a tablet computer, a laptop computer,and/or other. Many suitable handsets combine some or all of thesefunctions. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the portableelectronic device 100 is not a general purpose computing device like aportable, laptop or tablet computer, but rather is a special-purposecommunications device such as a mobile phone, wireless handset, pager,or PDA. The portable electronic device 100 may support specializedactivities such as gaming, inventory control, job control, and/or taskmanagement functions, and so on.

The portable electronic device 100 may execute a web browser applicationwhich enables the display 104 to show a web page. The web page may beobtained via wireless communications with a base transceiver station(BTS) 210, a peer portable electronic device 100 or any other wirelesscommunication network or system. Two base transceiver stations 210 areillustrated, and it should be understood that the wireless communicationsystem may comprise additional base transceiver stations, which may ormay not comprise identical hardware, but whose functions may beconsidered to be the same. The portable electronic device 100 may accessthe base transceiver stations 210 through a peer portable electronicdevice 100 acting as an intermediary, in a relay type or hop type ofconnection. In some instances, the portable electronic device 100 may bein communication with multiple base transceiver stations 210 at the sametime. The base transceiver station 210 is coupled to a network 212. Thenetwork 212 may comprise a combination of public and private networks.The network 212 may comprise both wired communication links and wirelesscommunication links. The network 212 may comprise, in part, theInternet. Via the link to the network 212, the base transceiver stations210 may be connected to another system, such as system 208.

The system 208 may be, for example, a server of the service provider.The system 208 may execute an application 209. The application 209,along with the system 208, may be configured to communicate information,such as information pertaining to the account of the user of theportable electronic device 100, between the service provider and theuser of the portable electronic device 100. The portable electronicdevice 100 may access the system 208 through the network 212, throughthe base transceiver stations 210.

In an embodiment, a user of the portable electronic device 100 (alsoreferred to as a customer of a wireless communication service provider,or merely as a customer) may purchase a quantity of text messages, forexample 100 text messages, from a service provider that offers textmessaging service. The newly-purchased text messages may be added to anexisting balance in the user's text message account. If this is thefirst purchase for this user, or is otherwise a new or empty account,then the balance will now be 100 text messages. If, however, the userstill has some number of text messages remaining in their text messageaccount, for example 15 text messages, the new balance would be theexisting balance plus the newly-purchased text messages, or 115 textmessages. As the user of the portable electronic device 100 sends and/orreceives subsequent text messages, the number of remaining text messagesmay be decremented accordingly, and will produce a new balance.

In an embodiment, the user of the portable electronic device 100 maypurchase text messages as a number of text messages per period of timesuch as, for example a number of text messages per week, per month, peryear, or other period of time. Then, as the user of the portableelectronic device 100 uses or consumes the balance of the text messages,the age of the messages also may be of concern, as they may be providedon a “use by date” or other expiration scheme such that the balance maybe reduced if the text messages are not used within a given timeframe.In this case, the user of the portable electronic device 100 may benotified of the time period remaining to use the available text messagebalance, in order to apprise the user of the portable electronic device100 of the pending expiration of the balance or a portion of the balanceof her/his account.

In an embodiment, the portable electronic device 100 may be a mobilephone, and may therefore be capable of making phone calls, as well assending and receiving text messages. Similarly to the pre-paid textmessage plan described herein, the mobile phone user may have anarrangement with the service provider to prepay for minutes of mobilephone usage. For example, the mobile phone user may have an account thatcontains some number of minutes of mobile phone service to be consumedas the mobile phone is used for sending and/or receiving phone calls. Asdiscussed previously herein, the service provider may bundle the mobilephone services into a service plan that provides both mobile phoneminutes and text message. Also, the service provider may maintain acustomer support center, in order to provide support services tocustomers such as help in operating their portable electronic devices100, changing their service plans, paying their service plan bills,and/or other support services. In addition to the services listed, theservice provider's customer support center may have the ability toprovide customers with their current account balance, in terms of thenumber of remaining text messages in their pre-paid text messagingservice plan, and/or the number of minutes of phone service remaining intheir pre-paid phone service account. However, in an attempt to minimizethe costs associated with operating the customer support center, theservice provider may provide other means for customers to monitor and/orcheck a text message account balance that do not require the serviceprovider to incur additional costs, or that at least reduce or minimizethe service provider's costs.

In an embodiment, the service provider may arrange to provide to thecustomer a representation of the current balance (e.g. the number oftext messages remaining) in the user's text message account, in one ormore of a variety of ways. For example, the service provider may arrangeto append an audio message at the end of a mobile phone call thataudibly reports the current balance of mobile phone minutes and textmessages remaining in the user's account. For example, the user of theportable electronic device 100 may initiate or receive a phone call.When the call is terminated, the service provider may send a message toa client installed on the portable electronic device 100. The client maymonitor the call, and may make an audio announcement at the end of thecall, such as, for example, “You have 234 minutes and 123 text messagesremaining in your account”. In this way, the service provider may keepthe user of the portable electronic device 100 informed of theirbalance, without involving the customer support center.

In another embodiment, the service provider may arrange to provide avisual representation of the user's text message account balance.Similarly to above, the service provider may send a message to theclient, which may then display a visual representation on the display104 of the portable electronic device 100. The client may be configuredto receive periodic update information regarding the customer's accountfrom the service provider. The client may be configured to present thecustomer's account information on the display 104 of the customer'sportable electronic device 100. The visual representation may besuperimposed on the background image or idle screen of the display 104of the portable electronic device 100. The idle screen of the display104 may be the screen that appears on the display when the portableelectronic device 100 is first turned on, when it is activated from asleep mode, when it is in one of a variety of modes, or may be anotherform of screen display of the portable electronic device 100.

In addition, the client may be configured to provide an audible signalthat updated account information has been received, in order to alertthe user of the portable electronic device 100 that updated accountinformation is available. The client may display or otherwise convey thecustomer's account information, and may also be configured to provide anaudible or vibrational indication that an account update has beenreceived in any appropriate manner that may serve the customer's needs.FIG. 1 shows an example of such a visual representation, as message 112.In this example, message 112 illustrates an account balance on display104, that portrays the text message account balance as a fraction. Thenumerator (e.g. the top number) of the fraction may represent the numberof text messages remaining in the user's account (or consumed from theaccount), and the denominator (e.g. the bottom number) of the fractionmay represent the original or previous balance in the user's account, orthe balance for a given time period. The original balance may be one ofthe starting balance of the user's account (e.g. the balance when theaccount was initially established), the balance when the user last addedvalue to the account, or other form of previous or original balancerepresentation. In an embodiment, the message may be any form ofrepresentation of the number of text messages remaining in the user'saccount, the number of messages consumed from the user's account, or anyother presentation of the user's text message and/or phone minutesaccount balance. In addition, the message may contain notes to informthe user of the portable electronic device 100 of other relevantinformation pertaining to the account.

In yet another embodiment, the text messages purchased by the user mayhave an associated time limit, such that the text messages must be usedwithin a given timeframe, or they will expire. For example, the serviceprovider may require the user to use the purchased text messages withina fixed number of days, for example 90 days, from the date of purchase.If the end of the 90 day period is reached, and there are unused textmessages in the user's account, the service provider may purge theaccount and delete the unused text messages. In an embodiment, theservice provider may also provide an audible or visual representation ofthe remaining time or expiration date associated with either textmessages or mobile phone minutes, in order to both keep customersinformed and to minimize calls to their customer support center.

In an embodiment, the method by which the service provider communicatesaccount information with a customer may vary. The service provider maysend a daily text message to a customer, apprising the customer of theircurrent balance. Alternatively, the service provider may display thecustomer's account balance on the customer's portable electronic device100 whenever the customer enters the texting mode of the portableelectronic device 100. The service provider may arrange that thecustomer may send a text message to the service provider, requesting acurrent balance. The service provider may then convey the currentbalance information to the customer with a text message containing therequested account balance information. Alternatively, the portableelectronic device 100 or the client may store the number of remainingavailable pre-paid text messages and permit the user to check thebalance by, for example, pressing a key or combination of keys of thekeypad 108, or by otherwise requesting a display of the current balance.

In an embodiment, the service provider may allow the customer to requesther/his account balance via text message request, and may choose not torequire that the customer use any of their text message credits forsending/receiving of the account update text messages. This “free”service may be offered as a value-added service by the service provider,and thereby may allow the service provider a means by which todistinguish itself from its competitors.

The customer may be provided with the opportunity to configure theclient to retrieve update information at a specific interval of thecustomer's choosing. For example, the application may haveuser-configurable settings that permit the customer to request an updateat an interval of once a day, twice a day, four times a day, about onceevery two hours, about once every four hours, or any other timeframeselectable by the customer. Alternatively, the client may be configuredto provide updated information at an interval, for example, every fivetext messages sent or received, every ten text messages sent orreceived, or other interval. In an embodiment, any/all of the methodsand periods of notification may be user-configurable, and thereby mayprovide the user with the ability to setup his/her system to best suittheir preferences and needs. This flexibility may provide the serviceprovider another means of distinguishing itself from its competitors.

In still another embodiment, the service provider may arrange to appendaccount update information into a customer's incoming text message.While SMS text messages are limited to 160 characters, some textmessages may be shorter than this. Therefore, extra space within textmessages may be available, into which the service provider may imbedaccount information. For example, when a customer receives an incomingtext message, the service provider may append a short message into theend of the text message containing the number of text messages thecustomer has left in his/her account. For example, an incoming textmessage may be amended to have verbiage at the end that says, forinstance, “You have 345 text messages left in your account”, or such.Alternatively, an incoming text message may be amended to provide asymbolic representation at the end that says, for instance “(345/500)”or some other distinctive format that is readily distinguished from thecontent of the incoming text message.

In an embodiment, the service provider may append additional accountupdate information into a customer's incoming text message, includingphone minutes remaining in the customer's account, expirationinformation about text messages and/or minutes remaining in thecustomer's pre-paid phone service account, and/or any other informationthe service provider deems appropriate. In an embodiment, the appendedmessage may be presented in a distinct format, hue, or color that isreadily distinguishable from the body of the text message, so that theuser of the portable electronic device 100 may be aware that it isseparate from the text message, itself.

In an embodiment, the service provider may give the customer the abilityto request the specific information that the service provider sends. Inthis manner, the customer may be able to configure their notificationsto suit their particular needs or desires. For example, the customer maywish to receive account balance information for their pre-paid textmessage account at one interval, for example daily, and they may preferto receive the account balance in their pre-paid phone message accountat a different interval, for example weekly. The customer may also beable to configure the notification method that alerts them that theupdated account information has been received. For example, the customermay configure their notification to alert them with an audible tone whena pre-paid phone account update is received, and a vibrating indicationwhen a pre-paid text message account update is received. In anembodiment, the service provider may provide the customer with theoption of configuring their account balance notifications in any manner,in order to better serve their customer and to provide yet another wayto distinguish their service from that of their competitors.

In still another embodiment, the account balance may be presented in agraphical form. For example, the account balance may be presented as anicon, such that the icon conveys the notion of a sort of reservoir. Inother words, in a manner akin to the common battery icon that may appearon the display of some forms of portable electronic device, wherein thebattery charge level is portrayed as being full, three quarters full,half full, one quarter full, or such. In a likewise manner, the accountbalance may be represented as being full, or other portion of full byway of a graphic icon or image that effectively portrays the quantity oftext messages remaining in or consumed from the pre-paid text messageaccount. In another example, the account may be represented as a gauge,much along the lines of a gas gauge in an automobile. Similar to thegraphic icon or image described above, the gauge may indicate full,three quarters full, half full, one quarter full, empty, or similarincremental or absolute representations of the balance of the account.

In other embodiments, the account information may be provided to thecustomer by the service provider in any form or fashion. Instead ofconveying account balance information in terms of the actual number oftext messages and/or pre-paid phone minutes remaining, the informationmay be provided in terms of the fraction of the account that has beenconsumed or the amount of the account that remains. For example, thecustomer may be informed that there is one half of the account balanceleft, one fourth of the account balance left, one eighth of the accountbalance left, and so on. Alternatively, the account information may beconveyed in terms of the fraction of the account that has been consumed.For example, one forth of the account has been used, one half of theaccount has been used, three fourths of the account has been used, andso on.

In an embodiment, the pre-paid account may comprise units of textmessaging credit, units of phone communication minutes, units of emailcredit, units of minutes of internet access, units of amounts of data ofinternet access such as bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or other units ofinternet access, or other credit for any form of communication orservice for a portable electronic device 100. One of ordinary skill inthe art may envision additional form or formats for conveyinginformation regarding any of the customer's account balances and therelated balance therein.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the portable electronic device 100.While a variety of known components of portable electronic devices 100are depicted, in an embodiment a subset of the listed components and/oradditional components not listed may be included in the portableelectronic device 100. The portable electronic device 100 includes adigital signal processor (DSP) 502 and a memory 504. As shown, theportable electronic device 100 may further include an antenna and frontend unit 506, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 508, an analog basebandprocessing unit 510, a microphone 512, an earpiece 514, a headset port516, an input/output interface 518, a removable memory card 520, auniversal serial bus (USB) port 522, an infrared port 524, a vibrator526, a keypad 528, a touch screen liquid crystal display (LCD) with atouch sensitive surface 530, a touch screen/LCD controller 532, acharge-coupled device (CCD) camera 534, a camera controller 536, and aglobal positioning system (GPS) sensor 538. In an embodiment, theportable electronic device 100 may include another kind of display thatdoes not provide a touch sensitive screen. In an embodiment, the DSP 502may communicate directly with the memory 504 without passing through theinput/output interface 518.

The DSP 502 or some other form of controller or central processing unitoperates to control the various components of the portable electronicdevice 100 in accordance with embedded software or firmware stored inmemory 504 or stored in memory contained within the DSP 502 itself. Inaddition to the embedded software or firmware, the DSP 502 may executeother applications stored in the memory 504 or made available viainformation carrier media such as portable data storage media like theremovable memory card 520 or via wired or wireless networkcommunications. The application software may comprise a compiled set ofmachine-readable instructions that configure the DSP 502 to provide thedesired functionality, or the application software may be high-levelsoftware instructions to be processed by an interpreter or compiler toindirectly configure the DSP 502.

The antenna and front end unit 506 may be provided to convert betweenwireless signals and electrical signals, enabling the portableelectronic device 100 to send and receive information from a radioaccess network (RAN) or some other available wireless communicationsnetwork or from a peer portable electronic device 100. In an embodiment,the antenna and front end unit 506 may include multiple antennas tosupport beam forming and/or multiple input multiple output (MIMO)operations. As is known to those skilled in the art, MIMO operations mayprovide spatial diversity which can be used to overcome difficultchannel conditions and/or increase channel throughput. The antenna andfront end unit 506 may include antenna tuning and/or impedance matchingcomponents, RF power amplifiers, and/or low noise amplifiers.

The RF transceiver 508 provides frequency shifting, converting receivedRF signals to baseband and converting baseband transmit signals to RF.In some descriptions a radio transceiver or RF transceiver may beunderstood to include other signal processing functionality such asmodulation/demodulation, coding/decoding, interleaving/deinterleaving,spreading/despreading, inverse fast Fourier transforming (IFFT)/fastFourier transforming (FFT), cyclic prefix appending/removal, and othersignal processing functions. For the purposes of clarity, thedescription here separates the description of this signal processingfrom the RF and/or radio stage and conceptually allocates that signalprocessing to the analog baseband processing unit 510 and/or the DSP 502or other central processing unit. In some embodiments, the RFtransceiver 508, portions of the antenna and front end 506, and theanalog baseband processing unit 510 may be combined in one or moreprocessing units and/or application specific integrated circuits(ASICs).

The analog baseband processing unit 510 may provide various analogprocessing of inputs and outputs, for example analog processing ofinputs from the microphone 512 and the headset port 516 and outputs tothe earpiece speaker 514 and the headset port 516. To that end, theanalog baseband processing unit 510 may have ports for connecting to thebuilt-in microphone 512 and the earpiece speaker 514 that enable theportable electronic device 100 to be used as a mobile phone. The analogbaseband processing unit 510 may further include a port for connectingto a headset or other hands-free microphone and speaker configuration.The analog baseband processing unit 510 may provide digital-to-analogconversion in one signal direction and analog-to-digital conversion inthe opposing signal direction. In some embodiments, at least some of thefunctionality of the analog baseband processing unit 510 may be providedby digital processing components, for example by the DSP 502 or by othercentral processing units.

The DSP 502 may perform modulation/demodulation, coding/decoding,interleaving/deinterleaving, spreading/despreading, inverse fast Fouriertransforming (IFFT)/fast Fourier transforming (FFT), cyclic prefixappending/removal, and other signal processing functions associated withwireless communications. In an embodiment, for example in a codedivision multiple access (CDMA) technology application, for atransmitter function the DSP 502 may perform modulation, coding,interleaving, and spreading, and for a receiver function the DSP 502 mayperform despreading, deinterleaving, decoding, and demodulation. Inanother embodiment, for example in an orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplex access (OFDMA) technology application, for the transmitterfunction the DSP 502 may perform modulation, coding, interleaving,inverse fast Fourier transforming, and cyclic prefix appending, and fora receiver function the DSP 502 may perform cyclic prefix removal, fastFourier transforming, deinterleaving, decoding, and demodulation. Inother wireless technology applications, yet other signal processingfunctions and combinations of signal processing functions may beperformed by the DSP 502.

The DSP 502 may communicate with a wireless network via the analogbaseband processing unit 510. In some embodiments, the communication mayprovide Internet connectivity, enabling a user to gain access to contenton the Internet and to send and receive e-mail or text messages. Theinput/output interface 518 interconnects the DSP 502 and variousmemories and interfaces. The memory 504 and the removable memory card520 may provide software and data to configure the operation of the DSP502. Among the interfaces may be the USB port 522 and the infrared port524. The USB port 522 may enable the portable electronic device 100 tofunction as a peripheral device to exchange information with a personalcomputer or other computer system. The infrared port 524 and otheroptional ports such as a Bluetooth interface or an IEEE 802.11 compliantwireless interface may enable the portable electronic device 100 tocommunicate wirelessly with other nearby handsets and/or wireless basestations.

The input/output interface 518 may further connect the DSP 502 to thevibrator 526 that, when triggered, causes the portable electronic device100 to vibrate. The vibrator 526 may serve as a mechanism for silentlyalerting the user to any of various events such as an incoming call, anew text message, and an appointment reminder.

The keypad 528 couples to the DSP 502 via the interface 518 to provideone mechanism for the user to make selections, enter information, andotherwise provide input to the portable electronic device 100. Anotherinput mechanism may be the touch screen LCD 530, which may also displaytext and/or graphics to the user. The touch screen LCD controller 532couples the DSP 502 to the touch screen LCD 530.

The CCD camera 534 enables the portable electronic device 100 to takedigital pictures. The DSP 502 communicates with the CCD camera 534 viathe camera controller 536. The GPS sensor 538 is coupled to the DSP 502to decode global positioning system signals, thereby enabling theportable electronic device 100 to determine its position. In anotherembodiment, a camera operating according to a technology other thancharge coupled device cameras may be employed. Various other peripheralsmay also be included to provide additional functions, e.g., radio andtelevision reception.

FIG. 4 illustrates a software environment 602 that may be implemented bythe DSP 502. The DSP 502 executes operating system software 604 thatprovides a platform from which the rest of the software operates. Theoperating system software 604 may provide a variety of drivers for thehandset hardware with standardized interfaces that are accessible toapplication software. The operating system software 604 may be coupledto and interact with application management services (“AMS”) 606 thattransfer control between applications running on the portable electronicdevice 100. Also shown in FIG. 4 are a web browser application 608, amedia player application 610, and JAVA applets 612. The web browserapplication 608 configures the portable electronic device 100 to operateas a web browser, allowing a user to enter information into forms andselect links to retrieve and view web pages. The media playerapplication 610 configures the portable electronic device 100 toretrieve and play audio or audiovisual media. The JAVA applets 612configure the portable electronic device 100 to provide games,utilities, and other functionality.

Now turning to FIG. 5, a flowchart 800 of an embodiment of thedisclosure is illustrated. In step 802, the pre-paid subscriber accountof a user of a portable electronic device 100 is billed for apredetermined number of text messages to be sent from the portableelectronic device 100. The purchased text messages are added to theuser's account and in step 804, the current balance of the account isincremented by the number of text messages purchased, therebydetermining a first count. The user of the portable electronic device100 then may send and receive text messages, drawing on the availabletext message balance in her/his account. As the available number of textmessages is used by sending/receiving text messages, the first count isdecremented appropriately. In step 806, a second count representing theremaining balance in the text message account is determined. The secondcount is based on both how many text messages have been sent andreceived by the portable electronic device 100. In step 808, a messagecomprising the second count is sent from the application 209 of thesystem 208, to the client of the portable electronic device 100. In anembodiment, the message may further comprise the first count also. Theclient of the portable electronic device 100 may then present the secondcount in an appropriate manner as described previously herein.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart 900 of an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. In step 902, the portable electronic device 100 receives atext message. In step 904, the text message is parsed into a contentportion and a count portion. The parsing may be conducted by the clientof the portable electronic device 100. In step 906, the content portionof the message is presented in a text message display frame on thedisplay 104 of the portable electronic device 100. Then, in step 908,the client presents the number of remaining available pre-paid textmessages, based on the count portion of the text message, on theportable electronic device 100.

In FIG. 7, a flowchart 1000 of an embodiment of the present disclosureis illustrated. In step 1002, the portable electronic device 100receives a message indicating the number of remaining available pre-paidtext messages in a pre-paid text message account. In an embodiment, themessage of block 1002 may be a text message or other type of shortmessage. In step 1004, the portable electronic device 100 receives avoice call, for example, a phone call. Then, in step 1006, upontermination of the voice call, an audio message indicating the number ofremaining available pre-paid text messages in the account is presentedon the portable electronic device 100.

FIG. 8 illustrates a computer system 780 suitable for implementing oneor more embodiments disclosed herein. The computer system 780 includes aprocessor 782 (which may be referred to as a central processor unit orCPU) that is in communication with memory devices including secondarystorage 784, read only memory (ROM) 786, random access memory (RAM) 788,input/output (I/O) devices 790, and network connectivity devices 792.The processor 782 may be implemented as one or more CPU chips.

It is understood that by programming and/or loading executableinstructions onto the computer system 780, at least one of the CPU 782,the RAM 788, and the ROM 786 are changed, transforming the computersystem 780 in part into a particular machine or apparatus having thenovel functionality taught by the present disclosure. It is fundamentalto the electrical engineering and software engineering arts thatfunctionality that can be implemented by loading executable softwareinto a computer can be converted to a hardware implementation by wellknown design rules. Decisions between implementing a concept in softwareversus hardware typically hinge on considerations of stability of thedesign and numbers of units to be produced rather than any issuesinvolved in translating from the software domain to the hardware domain.Generally, a design that is still subject to frequent change may bepreferred to be implemented in software, because re-spinning a hardwareimplementation is more expensive than re-spinning a software design.Generally, a design that is stable that will be produced in large volumemay be preferred to be implemented in hardware, for example in anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), because for largeproduction runs the hardware implementation may be less expensive thanthe software implementation. Often a design may be developed and testedin a software form and later transformed, by well known design rules, toan equivalent hardware implementation in an application specificintegrated circuit that hardwires the instructions of the software. Inthe same manner as a machine controlled by a new ASIC is a particularmachine or apparatus, likewise a computer that has been programmedand/or loaded with executable instructions may be viewed as a particularmachine or apparatus.

The secondary storage 784 is typically comprised of one or more diskdrives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data andas an over-flow data storage device if RAM 788 is not large enough tohold all working data. Secondary storage 784 may be used to storeprograms which are loaded into RAM 788 when such programs are selectedfor execution. The ROM 786 is used to store instructions and perhapsdata which are read during program execution. ROM 786 is a non-volatilememory device which typically has a small memory capacity relative tothe larger memory capacity of secondary storage 784. The RAM 788 is usedto store volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to bothROM 786 and RAM 788 is typically faster than to secondary storage 784.

I/O devices 790 may include printers, video monitors, liquid crystaldisplays (LCDs), touch screen displays, keyboards, keypads, switches,dials, mice, track balls, voice recognizers, card readers, paper tapereaders, or other well-known input devices.

The network connectivity devices 792 may take the form of modems, modembanks, Ethernet cards, universal serial bus (USB) interface cards,serial interfaces, token ring cards, fiber distributed data interface(FDDI) cards, wireless local area network (WLAN) cards, radiotransceiver cards such as code division multiple access (CDMA), globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM), long-term evolution (LTE),worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), and/or otherair interface protocol radio transceiver cards, and other well-knownnetwork devices. These network connectivity devices 792 may enable theprocessor 782 to communicate with the Internet or one or more intranets.With such a network connection, it is contemplated that the processor782 might receive information from the network, or might outputinformation to the network in the course of performing theabove-described method steps. Such information, which is oftenrepresented as a sequence of instructions to be executed using processor782, may be received from and outputted to the network, for example, inthe form of a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave.

Such information, which may include data or instructions to be executedusing processor 782 for example, may be received from and outputted tothe network, for example, in the form of a computer data baseband signalor signal embodied in a carrier wave. The baseband signal or signalembodied in the carrier wave generated by the network connectivitydevices 792 may propagate in or on the surface of electrical conductors,in coaxial cables, in waveguides, in an optical conduit, for example anoptical fiber, or in the air or free space. The information contained inthe baseband signal or signal embedded in the carrier wave may beordered according to different sequences, as may be desirable for eitherprocessing or generating the information or transmitting or receivingthe information. The baseband signal or signal embedded in the carrierwave, or other types of signals currently used or hereafter developed,may be generated according to several methods well known to one skilledin the art.

The processor 782 executes instructions, codes, computer programs,scripts which it accesses from hard disk, floppy disk, optical disk(these various disk based systems may all be considered secondarystorage 784), ROM 786, RAM 788, or the network connectivity devices 792.While only one processor 782 is shown, multiple processors may bepresent. Thus, while instructions may be discussed as executed by aprocessor, the instructions may be executed simultaneously, serially, orotherwise executed by one or multiple processors.

In an embodiment, the computer system 780 may comprise two or morecomputers in communication with each other that collaborate to perform atask. For example, but not by way of limitation, an application may bepartitioned in such a way as to permit concurrent and/or parallelprocessing of the instructions of the application. Alternatively, thedata processed by the application may be partitioned in such a way as topermit concurrent and/or parallel processing of different portions of adata set by the two or more computers. In an embodiment, virtualizationsoftware may be employed by the computer system 780 to provide thefunctionality of a number of servers that is not directly bound to thenumber of computers in the computer system 780. For example,virtualization software may provide twenty virtual servers on fourphysical computers. In an embodiment, the functionality disclosed abovemay be provided by executing the application and/or applications in acloud computing environment. Cloud computing may comprise providingcomputing services via a network connection using dynamically scalablecomputing resources. Cloud computing may be supported, at least in part,by virtualization software. A cloud computing environment may beestablished by an enterprise and/or may be hired on an as-needed basisfrom a third party provider. Some cloud computing environments maycomprise cloud computing resources owned and operated by the enterpriseas well as cloud computing resources hired and/or leased from a thirdparty provider.

In an embodiment, some or all of the functionality disclosed above maybe provided as a computer program product. The computer program productmay comprise one or more computer readable storage medium havingcomputer usable program code embodied therein implementing thefunctionality disclosed above. The computer program product may comprisedata, data structures, files, executable instructions, and otherinformation. The computer program product may be embodied in removablecomputer storage media and/or non-removable computer storage media. Theremovable computer readable storage medium may comprise, withoutlimitation, a paper tape, a magnetic tape, magnetic disk, an opticaldisk, a solid state memory chip, for example analog magnetic tape,compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) disks, floppy disks, jump drives,digital cards, multimedia cards, and others. The computer programproduct may be suitable for loading, by the computer system 780, atleast portions of the contents of the computer program product to thesecondary storage 784, to the ROM 786, to the RAM 788, and/or to othernon-volatile memory and volatile memory of the computer system 780. Theprocessor 782 may process the executable instructions and/or data inpart by directly accessing the computer program product, for example byreading from a CD-ROM disk inserted into a disk drive peripheral of thecomputer system 780. The computer program product may compriseinstructions that promote the loading and/or copying of data, datastructures, files, and/or executable instructions to the secondarystorage 784, to the ROM 786, to the RAM 788, and/or to othernon-volatile memory and volatile memory of the computer system 780.

While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure,it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may beembodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spiritor scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is notto be limited to the details given herein. For example, the variouselements or components may be combined or integrated in another systemor certain features may be omitted or not implemented.

Also, techniques, systems, subsystems, and methods described andillustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may becombined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, ormethods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Other items shown or discussed as directly coupled or communicating witheach other may be indirectly coupled or communicating through someinterface, device, or intermediate component, whether electrically,mechanically, or otherwise. Other examples of changes, substitutions,and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in the art and could bemade without departing from the spirit and scope disclosed herein.

1. A method of presenting on a portable electronic device a number ofremaining available pre-paid text messages, comprising: receiving a userdefined interval at which to notify the user of a number of pre-paidtext messages remaining, wherein the user defined interval is defined byat least one of a number of pre-paid text messages sent and a period oftime; receiving by the portable electronic device a pre-paid textmessage; parsing the pre-paid text message into a content portion and acount portion; presenting the content portion in a text message displayframe; and presenting the number of remaining available pre-paid textmessages based on the count portion of the pre-paid text message at theuser defined interval, wherein presenting the number of remainingavailable pre-paid text messages comprises displaying the number ofremaining available pre-paid text messages as an appended message whendisplaying the pre-paid text message.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe portable electronic device is one of a mobile phone, a personaldigital assistant, and a media player.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising determining a remaining life span of unused text messages,wherein a message sent to the portable electronic device comprises theremaining life span.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining a number of remaining days before an expiration date of theremaining pre-paid text messages, and sending a message to the portableelectronic device indicating the number of remaining days before theexpiration date.